SIMMONS: The Golden Knights have managed the impossible

In the most remarkable season in hockey history, the architect of the shocking Vegas Golden Knights admits to being almost numb about the lofty state of his first-year, first-place team.

“I don’t feel anything,” said an exhausted-looking George McPhee, general manager of the month, the year, maybe the decade. “And (our record) it doesn’t mean anything.

“Of course, we look at the standings. It will mean something at the (trade) deadline. It will mean something at the end of the year. But other than that, we’re not doing any cartwheels. We just play. We compete.”

It can’t possibly be that simple.

Maybe inside he’s celebrating and doing cartwheels and not looking so exhausted. But on the outside, this is a story and a season no one saw coming, no one thought possible.

This is a first-year team exceeding all expectations. This is a team neck and neck with the Stanley Cup favourite Tampa Bay Lightning, a challenger for the Presidents’ Trophy, a real possibility for a 100-point season.

And across the NHL, especially in long-suffering cities, the question is being asked: How in hell did this happen this fast?

“I thought they had a good team when I looked at them,” said David Poile, who has been through two NHL expansions himself as a hockey executive, one in Atlanta and the other as the only general manager in Nashville Predators history. “I thought they had a chance to be a playoff team.

“But this … this is unbelievable. Kudos to everyone involved, what a job these people have done. To look at the standings and see them first in the league? That’s beyond any level I thought they could attain. To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like this before. Their goalies went down early and I thought, well that’s it for them. That was something that could have derailed their entire season. But they didn’t miss a beat. They just kept on going.”

Vegas Golden Knights’ Shea Theodore (27), William Karlsson (71) and Jonathan Marchessault celebrate Karlsson’s goal against the Edmonton Oilers during the second period on Jan. 13, 2018. (AP)THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

McPhee and Poile are in agreement on one point on the quick-build of the Golden Knights: The influence of the salary cap in the NHL offered up players in the expansion draft that otherwise would never have been available.

“James Neal is probably the best player ever available in an expansion draft,” said Poile, who had Neal in Nashville and exposed him to Vegas. “With us, it was strictly a financial move. How much was he making? How much would he be making in the future? Could we afford to keep him? Could we afford to lose him?”

This is Neal’s 10th NHL season after playing a significant role in Pittsburgh and Nashville. This is his 10th 20-goal season. He’s had a 40-goal season and is on his way to his second 30-goal season this year. At $5 million US per year, he is the third-highest paid player on the Golden Knights.

The highest-paid player is goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury at just under $6 million. “They got him because of salary cap, too,” Poile said. And, in order to accumulate draft picks for the future, which was a large plan of their blueprint, they took the $5 million contracts of ex-Leafs David Clarkson and Mikhail Grabovski, both of whom weren’t physically well enough to play.

“I wish the (NHL) had done something like this 20 years earlier, 40 years earlier to be honest,” Poile said. “A lot of expansion teams went through a lot of growing pains, a lot of changes, not just with managers and coaches, but with the whole operation. I think this formula allows any team coming in to be immediately competitive. I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like this again, but like I said, it’s unbelievable. Even with all the reasons in their favour, it’s still unbelievable.”

It all started with McPhee, the general manager, who had a plan from the start. He hired the right coach in Gerard Gallant, now the sure-thing NHL coach of the year. He hired a much-coveted assistant GM in Kelly McCrimmon, whom Mark Hunter tried to bring to Toronto. They had a template of sorts — they wanted speed, they wanted highly competitive players, and they wanted to find players they believed weren’t getting the right opportunity in previous situations.

That has somehow translated to an 18-2-2 home record (being in Las Vegas hasn’t hurt), the second-most regulation and overtime wins in the NHL heading into Tuesday night’s slate of games, only 11 losses in 46 games, and a plus-34 goal differential. All of those numbers are mind-boggling on their own. In the Western Conference, the Golden Knights are 16 points ahead of three-time champion Chicago Blackhawks and 21 points ahead of apparently on-the-rise Edmonton Oilers.

Gerard Gallant talks to the media on Jan. 2, 2018 (GETTY IMAGES)

In the gambling capital of North America, how much would you have bet against that ever happening? One of the players the Vegas staff identified was winger William Karlsson, who has scored 25 goals this season after scoring only 16 in 165 games in Columbus and two in 18 games in Anaheim.

You could say almost everything they’ve touched this season has turned to gold.

“We wanted to have a competitive team on the ice,” McPhee said. “And at the same time, we wanted to acquire surplus draft picks. Right now, we’re competitive and we have surplus picks.” Vegas drafted three players in the top 15 of last June’s draft, six of the top 65. “I like what we’re building, the players here, the players on their way.”

The most successful expansion team in NHL history was the 1993-94 Florida Panthers. They were managed by Bobby Clarke and coached by the late Roger Neilson. They didn’t make the playoffs in Year 1 — no expansion team post 1968 has — and collected 83 points.

Vegas should finish this season with more than 100. The previously successful first-year teams ended up in the 65-71 point range. At the other end of the spectrum, the truly awful expansion teams, like the 1974-75 Washington Capitals and the 1992-93 Ottawa Senators, accumulated 21 and 24 points, respectively.

“What I liked about that year,” said Mike Marson, who was a rookie with the first-year Capitals, “we had a brand new building. That was it. Pretty much everything else after that was a challenge.”

“You can’t compare teams and you can’t compare times,” said the 62-year-old. “We were at the end of the golden age. Gordie Howe was still playing. Davey Keon was still playing. There weren’t Europeans playing then. The game today is completely different, the way they play it. I was a rookie on that Washington team but I knew we didn’t have a whole lot.

“To see what Vegas is doing, I’ve got to think that George McPhee is a brilliant hockey man. To be able to put that team together that fast, to be this good, is a stroke of genius. I’m happy for them. I’m happy they don’t have to live through what we went through.”

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